Daniel Burnfin is a philosopher and historian of social and political-economic thought. He received his PhD in Germanic Studies and Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 2022. With a background in the history of modern German philosophy, his work engages with class theory, classical political economy, Marxian and post-Keynesian theory, and the work of Alfred Sohn-Rethel. Some further interests of his include the history and philosophy of science, economic history, and political realism.
His current research projects include a manuscript on the topic involuntary unemployment in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (i.e., the “rabble”), classical political economy, and Marx’s Capital. It argues that, of the three, only the last can provide an adequate explanation of involuntary unemployment, due to Marx’s novel concepts of value and capital. A secondary project concerns the concepts of the so-called Professional-Managerial Class, coined by Barbara and John Ehrenreich, and “unproductive labor” in classical and Marxian political economy. Daniel is also involved in translating and editing volumes of the work of Alfred Sohn-Rethel.
In the Winter quarter of 2022, he will teach “What is Capitalism” (GRMN 23123). In the Spring quarter of 2024 he will teach “Marx’s theory of class.”
